Ondo discloses plans to privatise Sunshine Stars FC

Ondo State government, yesterday, disclosed its plans to sell Sunshine Stars Football Club to interested investors and make it more efficient.

According to the state’s Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development, Bamidele Ologun, the state has been scouting for investors, who will take over the club and handle it professionally, different from what had been done in the past.

Ologun in Akure, yesterday, stressed that the government is more interested in developing sports than in its administration, adding, “the state can decide to sell Sunshine Stars FC if we get the right price and, most importantly, if the right company that has the right experience comes on board.

“We are looking at investors, who will come on board and run this club professionally and these days you know money is very essential in football… it’s big business and ordinarily, the government doesn’t have anything to do with business,” he said.

Ologun emphasised that the only role of government in business is to design and develop the policies that would lead to development, adding that the government’s top priority was to make sure that any investor who expressed interest in buying the club did so in a professional manner.

He maintained that the state was prepared to move forward with the sale of the club because, for the government, what was most important was having access to proper funding and grassroots development, which would require a significant amount of money.

“They (government) should just be there to create policies, to form policies and other things, so, why not sell, for example, if my friend, Adriano (foreign scout) gets back to Europe and he is able to, through our partner, Mr Lanre Moyero, bring a billion dollars, for us to get Sunshine FC.